Extra HUD funding for Glendale has caveats

Although Glendale got more money in emergency housing funds from the federal government than expected, the influx is partially due to an expanded definition of homelessness and the end to stimulus funding that once supported housing services.

For the two-year grant that runs through the end of this fiscal year, Glendale received roughly $224,000 to rapidly re-house people. That’s 56% more than it has been every year for nearly a decade.

But the number of people who will be eligible for the funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development has increased because the federal government has expanded the definition of homelessness to include those on the brink of losing their homes or who are living in motels.

Meanwhile, the $1.3 million in federal stimulus money Glendale received for housing services over three years ended in June. Due to that funding source drying up, the federal government gave more money for homeless services, said Homeless Services Coordinator Ivet Samvelyan.

The money is divvied up among nonprofits such as Door of Hope, which runs a homeless shelter for women and children, the YWCA’s domestic violence shelter, Loaves and Fishes, a food pantry and others.

“The goal is for us to get a little more out of [the Emergency Solutions Grant] every year,” Samvelyan said.

The city had originally received about $143,000, but in June 2011 got an extra $50,000, which it used to help pay for a winter shelter at the Glendale National Guard Armory. This week it programmed another $30,000 it received to pay for city and nonprofit administrative services.